The creation of a strategy through the recognition of threats and risks facing a company, with an eye to ensure that personnel and assets are protected and able to function in the event of a disaster. Business continuity planning (BCP) involves defining potential risks, determining how those risks will affect operations, implementing safeguards and procedures designed to mitigate those risks, testing those procedures to ensure that they work, and periodically reviewing the process to make sure that it is up to date.
Businesses can face a host of disasters that range from minor to catastrophic. BCP typically will help a company to continue operating in the case of many disasters, such as fires, but may not be as effective if a large portion of the population is affected, such as in the case of a disease outbreak. One example of BCP would be a finance company based in a major city backing up its computer and client files offsite, so that if something would happen to the corporate office, satellite offices would still have access to important information.